


Her

by the_never_was



Series: We Satellites [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Acceptance, Desire, F/M, Mental Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 07:52:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12076770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_never_was/pseuds/the_never_was
Summary: It's damn hard to be a professional sometimes.





	Her

**Author's Note:**

> Shepard, Liara, and Mass Effect belong to Bioware.  
> Old one-shot from 2013.  
> Posted Sept 2017 with account, dated with written date.

 

He couldn't take it anymore. Really, he couldn't. His damn mind was so focused on her that it was almost dangerous, and if it were any other situation, he'd have made himself recuse from the position of authority due to the potential distractions' results. But he was here, and he was the only one approved for his job, and that was that.

So now Shepard spent day in and day out, training on the ship with the rest and doing planetary missions, all in the path to hunt that traitorous turian, but his brain would _not_ let him have respite from images of the only person on board the ship that he had truly gravitated toward. Yes, he'd befriended Wrex and Garrus...as far as he could, anyway. He _did_ have Alliance watching him all the time. And he was well aware that even more eyes were _constantly_ on her, and especially on him _around_ her.

Due to having to even talk Williams down from xenophobia, Shepard tried to show inclusion by eating in the mess with aliens and Alliance crew alike. He tried not to show favoritism in mission squad selections, going with what felt right for each objective. Unfortunately, more often than not he wanted someone with a higher grasp of biotics at his back since he clearly had none of the ability...and that meant _her_. Sure, Alenko was adept enough at it, could work moves in tight spots, and Wrex was like a space freighter with a shotgun and his biotics, but there was just something special about Liara. Watching her lift four geth in the air at once with a singularity, hold pirates several seconds in stasis and even occasionally include _himself_ in her personal barrier if he was close enough was just like watching magic come to life. It was elegant, like a dance, and she had more control of her temper and her focus to almost work solely with the biotics over guns in ways Kaidan Alenko and Wrex didn't have.

He thought she was the best choice too often as a result. Sure, he worried about her armor a lot and keeping her safe as she wasn't as protected as he was, but Shepard and Tali seemed to be the only ones _not_ underestimating her. Alenko was impressed, but still questioned her capability with weapons and actual combat necessity in general. Wrex felt she wasn't a heavy hitter enough and wasn't it funny they had a krogan on board with biotics, so why waste the opportunity. Garrus kept concerned about the majority of the biotic strength tactically overwhelming their technical aspects. Tali thus volunteered to _be_ the technical aspects, since she was as much a tech-junkie as Liara was a biotic mistress. And Williams...well.

Shepard sighed to himself as he dissected his MRE.

Gunnery Chief Williams was getting difficult, and not because she was a rare proud Christian on a space ship in this day and age. It was her family shame of battle loss to turians pushing her to distrust the aliens on board, along with whatever she'd started carrying for Shepard himself. He'd only ever been respectful and polite, and given how scary it was for Williams to have lost her entire squad and make it out as she did to be helpful to them, he didn't want to be too harsh. But it was beginning to be a problem. Shepard figured, along with a muttered word and eyeful from Alenko in certain moments, that her attraction to him had begun with her rescue and cemented over his saving her from the beacon's pull and not blaming her upon awakening. There'd been that out-of-the-blue comment about a skirt on the Citadel that he'd been surprised by, and before he'd even been able to reply Alenko had quietly told her to watch herself. From there Shepard had played referee to calm the embarrassed Chief and concerned LT.

But it got worse when they found Liara. Shepard got it—after all, it was a heavy, stereotyped thing that human women were “losing” men to the asari based on male fantasy. He could sympathize with Williams' frustration, he supposed, but that would only truly matter if they'd been an item to begin with—and they hadn't been. He'd never stated intention or interest, and had even joked cleanly with her after hearing her sister on comm calling him cute. And Liara clearly had no intentions of the stereotype: She was nerdy, shy, awkward, and very lonesome...not exactly seductive or a nymphomaniac. Of course Shepard had already discreetly had meetings with a handful of men on board, advising them about behaviors and not to expect every asari they met to have been a bar dancer. Liara T'soni was a team member and deserved respect as such.

Curiously enough, when Shepard had finally subtly called Williams on the racist ploy by saying perhaps asari _also_ weren't so fond of human men categorizing and using them, Williams had stuttered, gained a look of awareness, but softly muttered, “Bet it doesn't stop them accepting credits, either.”

Shepard hadn't even graced that response with words. He'd just dropped his stone-like mask, glared, and walked off, leaving his subordinate in utter shock and scrambling to attention with a salute and fast apology.

Damn it, he got it. He understood. And he knew Ash wasn't all that bad—just seriously insecure about feminine competition on the ship. She was tough, a fighter, a survivor from a tight knit family. Smart and artful with her hidden love of poetry. He got along with her fine usually. But after that comment and his walk away, Shepard had started closing off, only speaking to her specifically when others were around and staying absolutely professional in deference. He _was_ her XO, after all.

But...in a way, she was kind of right. Because despite Liara's very polite intellectual personality, Shepard _was_ interested in the asari. No, he didn't think she'd ever danced before as many do, and no, he didn't demean her by putting her in some sick alien fantasy. What he did do was watch and listen, see the stress on her as she hoped people had believed her about Benezia right up until they had _killed_ her own mother to prove it. He saw her isolated, trying to be talkative slightly and only getting conversation from Alenko, Tali and Dr. Chakwas most of the time. At least Joker chimed in her comm to ask her questions about asari occasionally. Shepard saw a lonely being who did appreciate solitude but was unable to have it while on his ship. He saw a woman leered at for her body that was both familiar and exotically different. Yeah, he knew they were monogendered, but there was something about Liara that was still decidedly “female” somehow...and even she seemed to know it, as she kept feminine pronouns and he respected that.

Most of all he saw how goddamn beautiful she was, and he meant that beyond her face. He saw her engage Tali when the quarian got lonely, witnessed her try to aid Alenko when he had an implant flare up, and even try to teach Wrex some manners, though she was unlucky on that front. Shepard saw a beautiful-hearted person, detached by intellectual pursuit and a race that often preferred doing things alone due to their long life spans creating a need to be comfortable with oneself. He wouldn't lie and say her appearance did nothing for him; of course it had. She had huge sapphire eyes, an openness that sometimes bordered on naivete, and a promise of sensuality whenever she would return one of his private smiles.

Shepard finished his MRE, dazed as he considered all of this.

So sue him. He, a hetero human male, liked an asari on his crew. And he liked her a lot.

 


End file.
